(Newser)
–
The Daily Show is back—and critics say that judging by Trevor Noah's debut, it appears to be in safe hands. The 31-year-old South African thanked Jon Stewart in his opening monologue, promising to make him "not look like the crazy old dude who left his inheritance to some random kid in Africa," CNN reports. He praised his predecessor as "our voice, our refuge, and in many ways our political dad" and promised to keep up Stewart's "war on bulls---." He joked that Comedy Central had tried to get an American to host the show. "Once more a job Americans rejected is now being done by an immigrant," he quipped.

Noah, who joked about the Pope's visit, the departure of John Boehner, and the Volkswagen scandal, kept much of Stewart's staff, and many elements of the show, including the theme tune and the closing "Moment of Zen," remained intact, the AP reports. His interview with Kevin Hart felt a bit flat, but all in all, it was an "amazingly smooth start," decides John Doyle at the Globe and Mail. "It was the same show with a different wise-ass in the host's chair," he writes. It won't be easy living up to Stewart's legacy, writes Brian Lowry at Variety, but while there will be those who "don't warm up to Noah," for now "it doesn't look like anything here is cause to make that globe suddenly spin off its axis."